African embasy bomber among those killed in Somalia attack

Washington Times:

U.S. forces found, targeted and killed in a Somali desert city the senior al Qaeda operative who masterminded the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa and had since spent a decade in hiding, The Washington Times has learned.

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who is one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists, was the target of a U.S. missile strike on a residence in Dobley, a small town in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border, according to a U.S. military official who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the operation.

"Al Qaeda has used this region to spill over into other parts of eastern Africa," said a U.S. counterterrorism official, also on the condition of anonymity. "Somalia at a minimum is a place of refuge but for some of al Qaeda it is a place to plot and plan future attacks."

The truck bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which came just nine minutes apart, killed 12 American diplomats and more than 200 Africans, and also injured 5,000 people.

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who did not reveal details regarding the operation or name its target, told reporters that "the action was to go after al Qaeda and al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists," alluding that more than one person may have been killed in the attack.

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Several U.S. military officials told The Times that the attack was carried out by Tomahawk cruise missiles, although most were unsure of whether the missile was fired from a submarine or a surface ship.

Nabhan, an explosives expert, was also involved in the 2002 bombing of the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, where three suicide bombers crashed a sport utility vehicle through a guard gate and blew up their vehicle, killing 13 tourists, two of them children, and injuring more than 80 people. Minutes before the attack, an Israeli passenger jet leaving Mombasa airport had two anti-aircraft missiles fired upon it unsuccessfully.

According to U.S. military intelligence officials and federal prosecutors, Nabhan led al Qaeda's East African cells and was a member of the Shura Council, the organization's leadership group headed by Osama bin Laden. A $25 million reward was posted by the FBI for information leading to Nabhan's whereabouts.

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A U.S. counterterrorism official said that al Qaeda and its Islamist allies have been operating in the southern regions of Somalia, near the Kenya border "for some time" and particularly around Dobley in recent months.

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The cruise missile strike is much more efficient than using the lawfare approach of the Clinton administration and it does not discloses sources and methods of gathering information. It was the trials of Nabhan's compatriots that disclosed to bin Laden that we were intercepting his satellite phone conversations and shut off that means of intelligence while the 9-11 attacks were being planned and put into operations.

The Washington Post reporting on the attack said:

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"This is not helping the image of America in Somalia," said Hussein Abdi, a lecturer at a university in the town of Kismaayo, referring to the latest strikes. "That's what we're seeing on the ground."

The missile attack comes at a time when the United States is more isolated than ever in its foreign policy toward Somalia, analysts said.

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That seems like an unwise concern. Abdi's statement is laughable. If we have to let mass murders like Nabhan go to placate Somalia locals, their "friendship" is not worth it. In fact they are clearly not friends if they give aid and comfort to our enemy. There is no merit in working with others if they are supporting our enemies.

Bill Roggio has more on the Somali missile attack and al Qaeda operations in Somalia.